The bout was Gradovich's first defense of the belt he won earlier this year when he upset Billy Dib and it was obvious that he wanted to put on a show for the fans. The bout may have been a long way from home but the "made for TV" fighter didn't seem to care and he waged war with Munoz.

The Argentinian challenger, much to his credit played his part to create an all action bout with the fighters taking it in turns to come forward and bang away at each other. Unfortunately for Munoz however he often looked like an inferior replica of Gradovich with the "Mexican Russian" being faster, more skilled, bigger and more energetic.

Sadly for Munoz the fact he was cruder and less over-all developed than Gradovich allowed the Russian to do as he wished. He mixed up coming forward and brawling with boxing and even brawling on the backfoot with Munoz effectively walking into a hail storm of shots.

Despite the Argentinian being forced to eat a lot of leather he was never really in any trouble until the last round when his energy levels were clearly running low and Gradovich went on an all out offensive to try and put a exclamation mark on his performance. Unfortunately he didn't have the time or the power needed to get Munoz out before the final bell.

With the first defense behind him it's fair to say that Gradovich is a fighter that is going to be hard to dethrone. He's not the most technically solid fighter but he's a developing fighter who clearly has an impressive engine, seems durable and has a bucket load of heart. It's going to take a very special fighter to dethrone him and if recently turned pro Vasyl Lomachenko is eying him as an easy title the Ukrainian probably needs second thoughts.

For Munoz this is his second loss in a world title bout following a stoppage loss in 2011 to Toshiaki Nishioka, the then WBC Super Bantamweight champion. It's fair to say that he's shy of genuine world level, though with his style I think it's fair to say that Asia will welcome him back if he wants to fight some of their top fighters somewhere down the line.